The Trapper

The power

Trapper is the only killer whose power is spent before the chase starts. Everything you do in the first two minutes is an investment, and everything after it is collecting on that investment. The mistake almost everyone makes is treating traps as ambushes. They are not. A trap hidden in tall grass in the middle of the map catches somebody roughly never. A trap catches people when it sits where they were going to walk anyway — the exit of a pallet loop, the landing side of a window, the gap in a wall, the doorway a shack chase always ends in. You are not hiding a trap, you are closing a door. That reframes the whole match. Early, you sweep the three strongest loops near the middle of the map and trap the vaults. Mid-game, you trap around hooks before you leave them, because you are going to come back. Late, you trap the exit gates the moment the last generator is close, because a gate you have sealed is worth more than a chase you might win. His weakness is honest: he is a plain M1 killer at 4.6 m/s with no chase power at all. If you are in a chase and you have not already trapped that loop, you are just Trapper-shaped. So take the chase to your web rather than winning it where you stand — and remember his own Agitation is a real perk on him, not filler, because carrying a survivor further means hooking them inside the part of the map you already own.

Tips

• Trap the exit of a loop, not the middle of it. You want the trap where a survivor is forced to walk, not where they might wander.
• Trap the landing side of a window, not the approach. They vault fast and look forward — that is the half-second they cannot react in.
• Before you leave a hook, put a trap under it or on the path to it. You are coming back here and so are they.
• Pick up and re-place your traps as the match moves. A trap sitting in a dead corner of the map is a wasted one.
• When the last generator is nearly done, stop chasing and go trap both exit gates. A sealed gate wins games that a chase would not.
• Do not spend the opening 60 seconds walking to the far side of the map for traps. Trap what is near the strongest loops first.
• Against a coordinated team, expect traps to be disarmed. That is fine — disarming still costs them the time you spent placing it.
• In tall grass a trap is nearly invisible but also nearly useless. Grass is a bonus on a good spot, never the reason to pick a spot.

The Trapper's perks

• Agitation
• Brutal Strength
• Unnerving Presence

Perks worth running

• 
  Corrupt InterventionGood

  The single best perk on him. Blocking the three farthest generators buys you exactly the uninterrupted setup window Trapper's whole design depends on.

• 
  DeadlockGood

  Passive slowdown that costs you no time. Trapper never has spare seconds to walk across the map and kick something, so slowdown that happens on its own is worth more to him than to most killers.

• 
  Pop Goes the WeaselGood

  Your hooks are already clustered inside your web, so the generator you want to kick is usually close. That is what makes Pop affordable on a killer this slow.

• 
  Barbecue & ChilliGood

  Tells you which half of the map to walk to next. Trapper's travel time is his most expensive resource, so cutting a wrong-direction walk is a real gain.

• 
  Sloppy ButcherGood

  M1 killers want healing to be expensive, and Trapper is an M1 killer with extra steps. Also stacks with his trap add-ons that inflict the same status effects.

• 
  Scourge Hook: Pain ResonanceSituational

  Strong, but it wants you hooking on specific hooks while Trapper wants to hook inside his web. When those two overlap it is excellent; when they fight, take Pop instead.

• 
  BamboozleSituational

  Covers the window loops you have not trapped yet. Useful early, gets redundant once the strong loops on your side of the map already have traps in them.

• 
  Lethal PursuerSituational

  The opening reveal tells you where nobody is, which is where you should be trapping. Good information, but it does nothing for the rest of the match.

• 
  EnduringSituational

  Trapper eats a lot of pallets because he cannot avoid them. Worth a slot if you keep losing chases to stuns rather than to distance.

• 
  Hex: RuinWeak

  Rewards you for leaving chases quickly and pressuring gens across the map — the exact two things Trapper is worst at. The totem also dies before your web is built.

Add-ons

• 
  Iridescent StoneGood

  The reason to play him. A trap that re-arms itself turns a disarmed web back into a live one without you spending a single second walking to it.

• 
  Trapper SackGood

  Starting with every trap in hand removes the worst part of the opening — the walk. You give up picking traps back up, so commit to placing them well the first time.

• 
  Trapper BagGood

  One extra trap does not sound like much until you realise it is one extra loop you can close on the first pass. Cheap and always fine.

• 
  Trapper GlovesGood

  Setting traps 30% faster is 30% less time standing still in the open. On a killer whose power costs time, that is the whole point.

• 
  Bloody CoilGood

  Punishes the counterplay directly: a healthy survivor who disarms your trap is now injured. Turns a disarm from a clean win for them into a trade.

• 
  Fastening ToolsGood

  Faster to set and slower to escape from. The pair of effects means you place more traps and each one holds longer — the two things you actually want.

• 
  Wax BrickSituational

  More time stuck in the trap is only worth it if you are near enough to arrive. Great with a web around your hooks, mediocre on traps you placed and left.

• 
  Tar BottleSituational

  A darkened trap catches more people, but only on maps and spots that were already dark. Fun, inconsistent, and does nothing to a survivor who was not going to look anyway.

• 
  Lengthened JawsSituational

  Deep Wound on escape means a survivor who frees themselves still cannot just run off healthy. Better on a build that is already stacking status effects.

• 
  Serrated JawsSituational

  Haemorrhage until fully healed pairs neatly with Sloppy Butcher, but the status is only worth what your pressure lets you collect on.

• 
  Makeshift WrapWeak

  Only stops you from stepping in your own traps. That is a problem you can solve for free by remembering where you put them.

• 
  Padded JawsWeak

  Trades your damage for bloodpoints. Fine if farming is the goal, actively worse than nothing if winning is.